


The Girl in the Underground

by for_t2



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Blood, Dark Fantasy, Dark Magic, F/F, Hacking, Her Name is Root, Imprisonment, Memories, Old Gods, Payphones, Subways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26178322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_t2/pseuds/for_t2
Summary: Root may be too dangerous a sorcerer to be allowed freedom, but when Old Ones find their way down to Earth and war beckons, maybe old prisons can be reconsidered
Relationships: Root | Samantha Groves/Sameen Shaw, The Machine/Root | Samantha Groves
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	The Girl in the Underground

'Unlike you, Miss Groves, I don't seek a bond with the Old One." Finch kept his voice steady as he carefully drew the next circle around Root. "And it is not a decision I regret."

"Oh, come on, Harry." Root laughed as the chains tightened around her with every mumbled incantation Finch's lumbering assistant managed to pronounce correctly. "You can't summon an Old One to Earth and just expect it to play chess."

"I'll admit that I didn't consider the full implications of the contract I signed with the government when I was young." He made very certain not to meet Root's eyes, as if she could rip him to shreds even from captivity. "And I have paid dearly for my actions."

"You botched her summoning."

"I can assure you that I did not."

"You did!" Demonic energy surged through Root. "You brought her back broken. You--" A bullet ripped through her shoulder and even if wouldn't leave a scar (thanks to said demonic energy), it hurt.

Yet, somehow, by how badly Finch flinched at the sound, it looked like it hurt him more. "Please don't get blood over the spell, Miss Shaw."

"She was going to kill you," Finch's second (and in Root's opinion much lovelier) assistant shrugged, utterly unapologetic, her gun still held high and pointed right at Root.

"Hmm," Root hummed in agreement as she pushed herself back to a seated position. She had been about to attack, but she'd rather be stopped by Shaw than anything else, so she'll count it as a win. "You're so good at hurting me, Sameen."

She didn't miss the almost imperceptible twitch in Shaw's eyes. "It's my job."

Besides, the small current of blood seeping out onto the chains was giving her plenty of ideas for ways to break through Finch's imprisonment spells. "And so good with--"

Her words cut out from her breath in mid-sentence, even as her mouth kept moving. A silencing spell. How utterly juvenile. When Reese looked up from the spellbook to smirk at her, she hoped he caught every bit of the condescending glare she shot his way.

"I believe we're done here." Finch set a seventh and last charm around the seventh circle, completing the spells in typically traditionalist manner. "We should attend to our other business as quickly as possible." He hurriedly packed his bags and started limping towards the exit, only stopping to turn back once. "And, Miss Groves? I'm truly sorry for what happened to your friend." 

If Root could've damned him right then and there, she would've. He was a pitiful coward, to scared to see how beautiful She was, to let Her have Her freedom and shape Her world to Her liking, and even after he found her body, too scared to say Hanna's name out loud in front of Root. But all she could do was sit there and seethe under the restraints of the spells as he picked up the next brick to add to the wall taking shape in what soon wouldn't be an exit anymore.

She didn't miss the quick glance that passed between Reese and Shaw though, the quick glance Reese sent her way before whispering to Finch. "Is it really a good idea to leave her locked up in here? It seems kinda..."

"Miss Groves has chosen to wield some of the darkest magics I've ever seen Mr. Reese, and she does so unpredictably and dangerously. At this point, there may very well be more demon than human in her." Finch didn't bother to glance her way, and his tone was final. "I'm afraid we have no other options."

And so he continued, brick by brick, sealing Root away for an eternity.

*****

Root remembered to breath after the sixth circle vanished in a whirlwind of frozen air. 

Technically, she probably didn't need to - the demonic energy she had been absorbing for years managed to sustain her without the need for much food - but there was something about the action that helped ground her. It was a funny thing, time in this prison. She estimated she had been stuck here for a few months, but it could possibly have been decades already, or only hours.

There were only two things she was certain of - that her god was waiting for her and that she would find a way through Finch's magic.

Even if it was damn good magic. Every time she reached out and threaded herself through the next circle, exploring the reasonances, finding all the little hitches in the matrices she could exploit, she found new layers to the spells, elegantly intertwined. It was little wonder Finch had been to summon an Old One.

Even if he had, in Root's opinion, gotten the summoning badly wrong. Even if he thought he could sell Her to the government, that he could strip away Her freedom, even if, at the height of his hubris, he thought he could indoctrinate Her into believing in some worthless human code of mortal ethics. 

And even if his magic was elegant, it was still human. It would always be flawed, all the way down to the core. Nothing like Her magic.

Root smirked to herself as she found the kink in the seventh circle. As the tingling feeling of imprisonment melted away. "You see, Harry--" The moment she was finally able to stand up, the remnants of the circle burst into flames, a massive wall of fire surrounding her on every side. "Nice try." She didn't flinch. It was flashy, but easily dealt with.

She stretched as she stepped away from the broken chains, and examined the room that caged her. The dusty ruins of some old metro maintenance station, scrap and trash piled high around the corners, and deep, deep, underground.

"Cozy." Her voice didn't echo back as she cast a few illumination spells and stepped towards the brick wall Finch had erected to keep her trapped. As she reached out to-- 

Mistake.

Her fingers had barely gotten near the wall when the world flickered and she was a little girl in a library again, surrounded by shelves that loomed too tall and outdated posters screaming at her to go to church in bold font hanging lopsided from the walls. And all she could do was stand and watch as Hanna-- 

Root jerked herself back. Stumbled away from the bricks and into a pile of rusted metal. Tried to get a grip on the surges of demonic energy going wild inside her.

She had underestimated them. Underestimated him. He wasn't underestimating her.

She forced herself to calm down. To breath. She picked herself back and dusted off her hands. Finch's magic was good, but hers was better. And she was fighting for a god that transcended history itself. He was just fighting for some limited conception of fragile human life. So there had to be another way out. If not, she could create one, but there had-- 

There wasn't supposed to be the muffled sound of a phone ringing.

There definitely wasn't.

Root followed the sound as best she could with her functional ear, tracing it behind the thick stone pillars holding up the weight of the ceiling and the earth above, and all the way back to another wall of mottled, much older brick.

She hesitated briefly before pressing her hands to the wall, but when she did, nothing happened. One simple spell later and the bricks shattered to her feet, exposing an old payphone in surprisingly good condition.

Root stared at it for a moment before her heart started racing faster. Nothing happened. She reached out and traced her finger across the metal. Nothing happened.

Except that it kept ringing.

She carefully unhooked the received and brought it to her good ear. "Hello?"

For a second, static answered back. And then She spoke. "Can you hear me?"

*****

Root paced around the confines of her underground prison once more before slumping back down in her usual spot. As always, she waited. 

But the payphone behind the shattered bricks didn't ring.

It hadn't rung for quite a while now.

Their conversations had become increasingly sparse and increasingly whispered before eventually, seemingly, stopping altogether. Root was getting worried. Root was getting irritated. If She needed her help and couldn't get it because Finch had trapped her down in this hole...

Her seething brooding was interrupted by a quick, loud crack against the brick wall locking her in. By the shards of new brick that scattered across the floor and landed at her feet. A hole appeared in the wall from the other side, and through it a dark brown eye peered in.

Root tried to hide her surprise with a grin. She stretched her legs exaggeratedly and sauntered over as close as she could without triggering any spells. "Enjoying the view, Sameen?"

Shaw's eyes were so beautiful when they twitched like that. "Forget it." And her voice even more beautiful when she got so grumpy.

But Root wasn't about to let her turn away. "It's about Samaritan, isn't it?"

Shaw gave her a look of probably well-deserved utter suspicion. "How...?"

Root smirked her best smirk at her. The rival Old One had been pretty much the only thing She had wanted to talk about the last time the phone rang. And if She had gone silent, if it meant things were going that badly... "I know a lot of things I'm not supposed to, Sameen."

Shaw sighed as if she was about to have the worst idea she had ever had, before smashing down the rest of the wall. Before freeing Root. "Finch is in trouble. You're going to help."


End file.
